Family Structure Variables Research Articles

Household size and composition as correlates of child labour in urban Nigeria

This paper draws on interviews with 1,535 parents and their children to examine the relationship between child labour and various household variables in urban Nigeria, where child labour studies have been very limited. We provide a comprehensive overview of the household factors and residential dynamics through which child labour evolves. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of the household production theory in explaining the socio-economic ramifications and household context of child labour. Our findings indicate that although child labour is mostly caused by poverty and the need to prepare children with skills and training useful for future occupations, the size of the household, number of children in the household, number of children contributing to the household income, child's age, and age at which child started working – are all significantly and positively correlated with children's hours of work. However, gender compositions of the children or of the household head and age of the household head have little or no relationship with children's hours of work. Additionally, parental socio-economic status and family structure variables are associated with fewer hours of children's work. The findings have implications for policies aimed at regulating child labour in Nigeria. Africa Development Vol. 31(1) 2006: 50-65

Family Structural Openness and Communication Openness as Predictors in the Adjustmentof Adopted Children

The current study examined the relative contribution of family structural openness versus communication openness in the adjustment of adopted children. Seventy-three adopted children, placed predominately in inracial families within 18 months of their birth, were the focus of the study. Parental ratings of family structural openness and children's ratings of communication openness served as the primary predictor variables and children's ratings of their self-esteem and parental ratings of children's behavior problems were the outcome measures. Although family structural openness and communication openness were positively correlated, only communication openness independently predicted children's adjustment. The findings are consistent with research suggesting that family process variables generally are more predictive of children's psychological adjustment than family structural variables. Implications for social casework and clinical practice in adoption are discussed.

Women's Changing Attitudes Toward Divorce, 1974–2002: Evidence for an Educational Crossover

This article examines trends in divorce attitudes of young adult women in the United States by educational attainment from 1974 to 2002. Women with 4‐year college degrees, who previously had the most permissive attitudes toward divorce, have become more restrictive in their attitudes toward divorce than high school graduates and women with some college education, whereas women with no high school diplomas have increasingly permissive attitudes toward divorce. We examine this educational crossover in divorce attitudes in the context of variables correlated with women's educational attainment, including family attitudes and religion, income and occupational prestige, and family structure. We conclude that the educational crossover in divorce attitudes is associated most strongly with work and family structure variables.

Social and Economic Determinants of Disparities in Professional Help‐Seeking for Child Mental Health Problems: Evidence from a National Sample

To test the role of social determinants-including race, education, income, and demographic factors-of child mental health services use, defined as having had a visit to a mental health professional for depression, attention-deficit, or for any reason. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Child/Young Adult supplement, a nationally representative sample of 7-14-year-old children born to women who were 14-22 years old at the start of data collection, in 1979. African Americans and Latinos were over-sampled, and population weights are available to make nationally representative inferences. Indicators of mental health service use were regressed on social and economic determinants, family structure variables, and insurance variables, controlling for need as captured by several different symptom scales. Girls are much less likely to obtain needed treatment for externalizing behavior disorders than are boys, and are somewhat less likely to obtain needed treatment for depression than boys. Middle children are less likely to obtain needed treatment for any mental health problem than are oldest, youngest, or only children. The presence of the father inhibits the likelihood that the child will receive treatment, particularly for depression. African Americans and Latinos are less likely than white children to receive treatment. In contrast to these rich results for the social and demographic determinants of children's specialty mental health utilization, the economic and insurance variables (including maternal education and income) seem to hold little predictive power. These results argue for interventions to sensitize parents-especially fathers-to the need to pay attention to the mental health needs of their children, in particular girls and middle children. The analysis also suggests that the literature on intrahousehold decision making and on the gender dimensions of investment in children is worth extending to mental health treatment decisions.

Family Firm Resource Management: Commentary and Extensions

The family firm resource–divestment model by Sharma and Manikutty (2004) is extended into a longitudinal model of family firm resource management. Resource accumulation is included as an additional dependent variable, and the influences of family structure, family involvement, and cultural variables are discussed.

Social class, gender and psychosocial predictors for early sexual debut among 16 year olds in Oslo

Variations in early sexual debut among 16 year olds were investigated by social level variables, parental occupation, gender, ethnicity, family structure, family functioning, and individual level variables, future aspirations, academic and social self-perception, and depressed moods. The variations in sexual debut were investigated by examining proportions of 16 year olds reporting their first intercourse before age 16. The data were collected by self-reporting questionnaires administered to in-school-youth, in Oslo. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to test for associations. Gender interactions with all variables were tested. Overall, 25% reported early debut. Independent effect of social class on differences in proportions in early sexual debut were found. Gender interaction with social class, ethnicity and academic self-perception as they associate to proportions having had early sexual debut, were found. For girls the pattern of social class differences was linear and the highest proportions were found among working classes. For boys the pattern was U-shaped and upper managerial and manual working class youth had similar, higher proportions of early debutants. High scores of parental monitoring, future aspirations and academic self-concept and low scores of depressed moods, are protective factors. While high social self-perception is positively associated with early debut for both genders. Early sexual debut varies according to social class, following gender-specific patterns, among 16 year olds in Oslo. The negative association between early debut and academic self-perception are for boys less influenced by other social and individual level factors, than for girls.

The Influences of the Family of Origin on Career Development

Based on a developmental contextual perspective advocated by Vondracek, Lerner, and Schulenberg, this article provides a comprehensive review of the research published since 1980related to family of origin influences on career developmentandoccupational choice. Because individuals are most likely to seek assistance with career decisions from family members, it is important that counseling psychologists understand how families can have a positive influence and facilitate career development. Influential family contextual factors are identified within four developmentallevels (i.e., children, adolescents, college students/young adults, and adults). Across the lifespan, both family structure variables (e.g., parents’ occupations) and family process variables (e.g., warmth, support, attachment, autonomy) were found to influence a host of career constructs; however, the process by which families influence career development is complex and is affected by many contextual factors such as race, gender, and age. Based on this comprehensivereview, implicationsfor counselingresearch andpracticeare discussed.

Personal characteristics of adolescent prostitutes and rearing attitudes of their parents: a structural equation model

The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors of family structure, personality traits, and other variables among adolescent prostitutes. The subjects comprised 158 adolescent prostitutes in a halfway house as the case group and 65 high school girls as the control group. Data were collected by using questionnaires about demographic information, the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Instrument. A high rate of tobacco, alcohol and drug use was found in the case group. Numerous factors distinguished the cause–effect relationship among adolescent prostitutes. Of all risk factors studied, maternal protection, paternal care, neurotic characteristics, tobacco use, discontinuous schooling and a dysfunctional family had the most direct effect. These results provide useful information for the evaluation of and interventions with adolescent prostitution.

How family structure affects parent ‐ child communication about consumption

Begins by defining consumer socialisation as the process by which young people learn to function in the marketplace; this is a key concept in studying children’s consumer behaviour and decision making. Outlines the ways that parents influence this process; they are role models, and communicate about purchases and consumption; co‐shopping and concept‐orientation are two aspects of this, as are the influence of the child and the amount of communication. Outlines the changes in family structure, including the increase in one‐parent families headed by women, which has resulted in more co‐shopping; the increase in the number of two‐income families; and the decline in numbers of children per family. Reports research on Belgian children on the four sub‐dimensions of parent ‐ child communication as affected by the family structure variables.

The Role of Peers and Families in Predicting the Loneliness Level of Adolescents

The authors investigated the relative contribution of peer relations, family structure, and demographic variables in predicting loneliness in adolescents. Ninth-grade high school students (N = 756) from 8 different schools representing various socioeconomic status in Ankara, Turkey, completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale (D. Russell, L. A. Peplau, & M. L. Ferguson, 1978), the Family Structure Assessing Instrument (A. Gülerce, 1996), and an author-constructed questionnaire involving demographic information and variables on peer relations. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that all three sets of variables accounted for 41% of the variance in loneliness scores. Additionally, peer relations contributed 34% of the variance, family structure 14%, and demographic variables 3%. Within the limits of the study, peer relations appear to be the best predictors of adolescent loneliness.

Applicant gender and family structure: Effects on perceived relocation commitment and spouse resistance

Within the context of a controlled laboratory study, the effects of applicant gender, marital type (single earner, dual earner), and parental status (child, no child) on perceptions of job applicant commitment to a move involving geographic relocation and expected family resistance to the move were investigated. The results indicated that gender and family structure variables interacted in their influence on the dependent variables. Participants also provided reasons for their ratings of perceived commitment. Content analysis revealed 4 themes underlying participant responses: family concerns, goals and motivation of applicant, experience of applicant, and individual differences.

Family Structure and Female Labor Supply in Mexico City

This paper investigates labour supply of the wives of the heads of households in Mexico City, with a focus on the impact of family structure. A static neoclassical structural model is used. We assume that each woman chooses her labour supply and corresponding income so that her utility is maximized, conditional upon her husband’s labour supply and earnings. We use a direct translog specification, and include family composition variables as taste shifters. Also taken into account are fixed costs of working, nonlinear taxes, unobserved preference variation, prediction errors in wages of nonworkers, and potential endogeneity of wages. The models are estimated by smooth simulated maximum likelihood using data from Mexico’s Urban Employment Survey drawn in 1992. We find income elasticities of labour supply of about -0.35, and wage elasticities of about 0.5. The latter is substantially overestimated if wage rate endogeneity is not taken into account. The results are robust with respect to other specification choices. We find that the impact of family structure variables on participation is different from that on hours worked, so that their total effect is ambiguous.

The Effects of Several of the Most Common Family Structures on the Academic Achievement of Eighth Graders

SUMMARY Over the last twenty-five years, researchers have become greatly interested in the effects of family structure on the academic achievement of children. The vast majority of these studies have focused on one or two family structures in their analysis. There remains, however, a considerable amount of debate about which of these family structures impacts the academic achievement of children the most. Using the NELS data set from the 1988-1992 period, the effects of seven family structure variables were examined to determine the extent to which several family structures impact the academic achievement of children. The results of this study indicate that the effects of family structure on the academic achievement of children vary considerably among the most common family structures. When SES, race, and gender are not controlled, living with a never-married single-parent or living with a remarried widow(er) had the greatest impact on the academic achievement of children. When these variables are controlled, living with a cohabiting couple or a remarried widow(er) had the largest impact on the academic achievement of children.

Majority African American Schools and the Family Structures of Schools: School Racial Composition and Academic Achievement among Black and White Students

This research extends and revises research on the association between the racial composition of schools and academic achievement. Some earlier studies have looked at how the concentration of minority students was related to test performance of both Black and White students, and have found a negative correlation for both groups that could not be attributed to socioeconomic factors. Using hierarchical linear modeling and including individual-level and school-level family structure variables to re-analyze data used in some of the previous studies, the present study finds that the correlation between racial composition and achievement test scores can be explained by the fact that schools with large percentages of minority students contain large percentages of students from single-parent families. This is true for both Black students and White students, examined separately.

Child resiliency in inner-city families affected by HIV: the role of family variables

This study examined the role of family variables in child resiliency within a sample of African-American, inner-city children whose mothers are HIV-infected. Variables from three dimensions of the family were included: family structural variables, maternal variables, and mother-child (parenting) variables. The participants were 82 children between the ages of 6 and 11 and their HIV-infected mothers. Correlational analyses indicated that resiliency was associated only with three parenting variables: parent–child relationship, parental monitoring, and parental structure in the home. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated a multiplicative relationship between parental monitoring and parent–child relationship and between parental monitoring and parental structure in the home, suggesting that parenting variables potentiate each other. Clinical implications of the findings are considered.

Poverty in Nonmetropolitan America: Impacts of Industrial, Employment, and Family Structure Variables

Abstract Poverty is more extensive and more severe in nonmetropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. Here we maintain that the extensive industrial and economic transformations occurring in rural areas have resulted in patterns contributing to these high poverty levels. These transformations, which include an increase in service‐sector employment, in many ways mirror the economic changes that have occurred in the inner city. We maintain that Wilson's model of the inner‐city underclass can be useful in understanding some poverty trends in nonmetropolitan areas. To test the Wilson model, we analyze 1990 census data. The data generally support the model and indicate that the industrial transformation of rural areas leads to changes in the gender structure of the labor force, and to a more unbalanced sex ratio. These changes, in turn, result in adjustments to family structure, including an increase in the percentage of female‐headed households. This process results in higher poverty levels.

Parental use of alcohol and children's behavioural health: a household production analysis.

This study uses the 1988 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to examine the effects of both heavy and problem drinking as well as moderate or light parental alcohol use on children's behaviour problems. The analysis is formulated within Becker's household production function framework. The production of child behavioural health is estimated using items from the Behavior Problems Index, a battery of 32 questions about behaviour problems which is derived from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), a widely-used parent report instrument. Measures of parents' alcohol consumption are constructed from the NHIS Alcohol Supplement that was administered to one randomly selected adult in each household in 1988. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (TSLS) results are presented. The results provide consistent evidence that parental alcohol use is an input with negative marginal product in the production of child behavioural health, regardless of which parent drinks. The magnitude of the effect is generally larger in the TSLS specification. There is also strong evidence of relationships between some family structure variables and child behavioural health and between parental physical health and child behavioural health.

Adolescent Sexual Behavior in Two Ethnic Minority Samples: The Role of Family Variables

Family structural variables and process variables were investigated as predictors of indices of adolescent sexual behavior and risk due to sexual behavior in 907 Black and Hispanic families from Montgomery Alabama; New York City; and San Juan Puerto Rico. The family structural variables examined were family income parental education and maternal marital status while the following process variables were considered: maternal monitoring mother-adolescent general communication mother-adolescent sexual communication and maternal attitudes about adolescent sexual behavior. Family structure variables failed to predict adolescent sexual behavior. However each of the family process variables predicted multiple indices of adolescent sexual behavior and risk due to sexual behavior. Neither adolescent gender nor ethnicity qualified these findings. Differences were however observed among the 3 locations and by reporter of the family process variables.

Understanding the Juggling Act: Gendered Preferences and Social Structural Constraints

In this paper we use longitudinal data to test the strength of individual preferences and structural variables as explanations for married women's labor force participation. Data drawn from a subset of the Career Development Study are used to compare gendered preferences measured toward the end of adolescence vs. work and family structural variables as predictors of the actual number of hours married women work for pay. Family structures that push women out of the labor force and pull them into family work prove to be the strongest predictor of married women's employment hours, with work structures (e.g., aspects of “good” jobs) and the subjective definition of paid work as a career also being substantively important for explaining hours in the labor force. Our findings also indicate that attitudes formed before and during early adolescence do have a weak but statistically significant effect on married women's labor force participation, at least for baby boom women.

Rural Hispanic Adolescents at Risk for Depressive Symptoms

Levels of depression among rural Hispanic adolescents were assessed. Psychological factors affecting depression were examined. Included were family characteristics, measured by the Background Information Questionnaire; self‐esteem, by the Piers‐Harris Children's Self‐Concept Scale; perceived stress level, by the Hispanic Children's Stress Inventory; acculturation, by the Cuellar Acculturation Index; and depression levels, by the Center for Epidemiological Studies‐Depression Scale. Results revealed moderate to severe depression symptomatology among 33% of the subjects, and mild depression symptoms among 17%. Two family structure variables, birth order and number of brothers, were significantly related to depression. Gender was an important predictor of depression, as was self‐esteem. Higher stress scores were related to higher levels of depression.